GREAT NEW TASK

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 59, 7 September 1945, Page 7

GREAT NEW TASK

PROVIDING BRAIN ASSETS FOR BRITAIN

LONDON, September 5. Addressing the national conference of Labour women, Miss Ellen Wilkinson, Ministe rof Education, attacked Professor Laski's reported statement at Stockholm that Britain was a secondclass Power. "The most mischievous thing that can be said abroad today is that Britain is a second-class Power just because her overseas assets have gone," she said. "What makes a first-class Power? It is the possession of gold and tribute or of first-class organising brains and high national morale. History is full of instances of nations with great material wealth sinking rapidly into obscurity because they did not know how to use their assets and squandered them in luxury of the few and neglect of the people. No great nation that has used its brains and planned properly has sunk or can sink below its highest level. "The British have shown that they are willing to try out new ideas and work for a planned economy. The ]ob of the Education Ministry to use the great new Education Act as a storehouse of mental machine tools to sharpen for Britain brains that are to meet the new situation. In close contact with the Board of Trade, which is becoming a great planning department, the Ministry of Education is already training the designers for new industries and those who may bring back older ones which we have lost. We are planning to pay special attention to scientific development. Britain's future depends on how all concerned in education tackle this great new task of providing the best brain assets for our mighty nation."